For Brian Stann, UFC 152 victory could aid healing process after family tragedy

TORONTO – For Brian Stann, it’s easy to ignore the carnage in the cage to reflect on the personal tragedy outside of it.

As the middleweight contender prepares for arguably the biggest fight of his career at Saturday’s UFC 152 event, the his brother-in-law’s recent suicide is still fresh in his mind.

MMA is nothing compared to that challenge, but Stann hopes a victory over Michael Bisping could benefit both aspects of his life.

Stann (12-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC), the former WEC champion who’s 4-1 in his past five UFC fights, meets perennial contender Bisping (22-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in a pay-per-view main card bout at Saturday’s UFC 152 event, which takes place at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. It’s not officially a title eliminator, though an impressive performance by either fighter could lead to a shot at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in 2013.

Stann has fought just once since October. First came the tragic loss of his brother-in-law, Lou Ruspi Jr., to suicide just days before Christmas. Then, after an April win over Alessio Sakara, he was sidelined by a shoulder injury that forced him out of a high-profile bout with former Bellator champion Hector Lombard.

The setbacks, both in the cage and out, were tough. But nothing was more difficult than the loss of a family member.

“Getting [my mother-in-law] and my wife and wife’s family through that with my kids, it was difficult,” Stann today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “As soon as I beat Sakara, that week they asked me about the Lombard fight. I immediately accepted it even though he wasn’t signed yet.

“Then I got hurt, and this is what I do to pay the bills. So I can’t take that much time off, and when you get injured, it delays everything.”

In the wake of the tragedy, Stann, who was back in training camp despite wearing an arm sling for the first few weeks, hoped to get some extended time off. But due to the injury and his need to make money and pay the bills, he got no such break.

However, he knows champ Silva is temporarily leaving the division to fight light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar next month at UFC 153. If he can beat Bisping convincingly – and assuming the UFC doesn’t go through with a potential Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre super fight next – Stann could set himself up for the next title shot. And it wouldn’t come until 2013, which would give him time to heal, both physically and emotionally.

So the stakes are high.

“Obviously, this is a huge fight for me, and I trained accordingly,” Stann said. “I really focused a lot on speed, cardio, and really just improving technically everywhere. That’s really been a big focus for the past two camps. I want to be in a place where in every aspect of my game, I’m getting better technikcally and not just sparring real hard and not just training with great fighters.”

Stann points to Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher as other fighters in a similar situation. Bisping, who’s also gunning for his first title shot, also is in the mix.

But Stann thinks he can leapfrog his veteran opponent with an impressive performance on Saturday.

“I want to fight [Bisping] because he has all the things I want,” Stann said. “He’s one of the highest-paid athletes in the UFC. He’s on the cusp of a title shot. He’s always on the cusp of a title shot. He actually made a comment that he’s been kicking butt in the UFC since I’ve been shining boots in the military. I wasn’t shining boots, but he’s right: I remember watching him the UFC when I was still active duty and just training on a heavy bag.”

Stann now needs to prove his turbulent personal life won’t have a major effect on his fighting life. Lately, he’s found inspiration from his wife, who started the Lou Ruspi Jr. Foundation to bring awareness to suicide and its prevention. Stann said his wife, who considered her late brother her best friend, recently was on the phone for nearly an hour with a suicidal woman who stumbled across the foundation’s phone number.

He knows the holidays, which mark the one-year anniversary of his brother-in-law’s death, will be especially hard. So he really wants to avoid another fight this year.

The layoff, of course, could be a lot easier to get through if knows a title shot awaits him after. It’d give him both the time and resources to support his family in an obvious time of need.

That leaves him with one goal on Saturday.

“I didn’t come here to put up a good fight,” he said. “I came here to win.”